DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a multi-region disaster recovery plan for an Amazon DynamoDB table. The table stores critical user profile data and must have a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of less than 1 minute and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of less than 5 minutes. Which solution meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse point-in-time recovery (PITR) or on-demand backups with multi-region replication, not realizing that restore operations are manual and time-consuming, whereas global tables provide automatic, near-real-time replication.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use DynamoDB global tables to replicate data to another region.
DynamoDB global tables provide active-active multi-region replication with sub-second latency, ensuring that data written in one region is automatically replicated to other regions within seconds. This meets the RPO of less than 1 minute and RTO of less than 5 minutes because the table is already available in the secondary region for immediate reads and writes, with no manual restore or failover steps required.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure DynamoDB Streams and a Lambda function to replicate data to another region.
Why it's wrong here
Streams with Lambda replicate asynchronously, so propagation lag and function failures push RPO beyond one minute, and the target table still needs promotion. It is tempting because Streams drive event-based replication and materialised views, which suits near-real-time downstream processing rather than a sub-minute RPO with sub-five-minute RTO.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB on-demand backup and restore to another region.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand backup captures a point-in-time snapshot only when invoked, so the RPO equals the backup interval, and restoring into another Region takes well over five minutes. It is tempting because on-demand backups give durable long-term retention and cross-Region archival, which is the right choice for compliance copies, not continuous failover.
- ✓
Use DynamoDB global tables to replicate data to another region.
Why this is correct
DynamoDB global tables use multi-region, active-active replication that propagates writes across regions, typically within one second. This satisfies the sub-one-minute RPO, while the replica's continuous availability enables failover well inside the five-minute RTO without restore operations.
- ✗
Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) and restore to another region.
Why it's wrong here
PITR restores to a new table from continuous backups, giving an RPO of up to 5 minutes and a restore taking far longer than 5 minutes, so both targets fail. It is tempting because PITR protects against accidental writes or corruption within one Region, which is the correct choice for logical-error recovery, not multi-region disaster recovery.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A data engineer is designing a multi-Region disaster recovery solution for an Amazon DynamoDB table. The table must be available in a secondary Region with minimal data loss and automatic failover. Which feature should be used?
hard- A.DynamoDB on-demand backup and restore in the secondary Region
- ✓ B.DynamoDB global tables
- C.DynamoDB point-in-time recovery (PITR)
- D.DynamoDB cross-Region snapshot export to S3
Why B: DynamoDB global tables provide a fully managed, multi-Region, multi-active database solution that replicates data automatically across selected AWS Regions. This ensures automatic failover with eventual consistency and minimal data loss, meeting the disaster recovery requirements for high availability and automatic failover without manual intervention.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DEA-C01 exam.